Degrees

About

Alark Saxena is a social-ecologist, a complex system scientist and a systems modeler. His primary interests are in sustainability, climate change resilience and poverty alleviation. Alark focuses on developing techniques for evaluating resilience to changes in developing countries. He is also interested in mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the development processes of poor communities across the world.

Prior to finishing his doctorate, Alark directed the Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative at the Yale Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry. He is currently the Program Director of Yale Himalaya Initiative and a lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Before coming to Yale, Alark graduated from the Indian Institute of Forest Management and worked as a Project coordinator with the MP Forest Department in India. He was responsible for developing a number of alternative livelihood projects for poor communities living inside the forests in central India.

In the Himalayas, Alark’s work is focused on understanding the impact of tourism on the local natural resources, culture and livelihoods in the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal. Alark is currently developing indicators for cross-border flood resilience projects between Nepal and India. He is also engaged in developing resilience projects in flood hit Uttarakhand Region of India.